Surgeon General talks new campaign to combat opioid crisis

Interesting… both members of the Trump administration in this interview have family/friends that have/had trouble with substance abuse. So it would appear that you get a interview with a myopic view of people abusing some substance that they have chosen to SELF-MEDICATE the monkeys on their backs and/or demons in their heads

4 Responses

  1. I’d love to see the scientific validation of the statement that people get addicted in 5 days.

    Plus, I’d really like to know how many people drastically injure themselves to get pain meds to feed their addiction…I’d bet the actual numbers are very low (& how do they get the data, anyway?*). Most people who are that desperate to get high do it the traditional way –buying drugs off the street (which is, of course, already illegal).

    Of course, nowhere in this compendium of dire stories is any hint about where the real problem lies….i.e. illegal drugs, not prescription drugs. Once again, the guv races full speed ahead to ram through draconian legislation that will do nothing about the actual problem, but everything toward destroying the lives of law-abiding pain patients who do not get high, do take their legal medications as directed in order to have some functionality & quality of life, & are already monitored & tested up the yingyang.
    (insert primal scream here).

    *not to mention, ERs don’t give out pain meds anyway these days except in really, really, rare & drastic cases. Bet all those gajillions of folks who hammer their hands, break their arms in doors, or run into bridge abutments feel really PO’d & let down when the ER docs refuse to give hem anything but tylenol or an aspirin.

    • Well put, thank you for your reply. Why I wonder can’t our government see that there are two sides to this issue? I am 73 and am in terrible pain, the pain issues will not get better. If it weren’t for the pain medication I could not continue living because the 24/7 pain would make it impossible. I hope the government will wake up and see our side of this issue. They are brainwashing people to believe their lies.

  2. Personally, I also always wonder when people say they have family members with substance abuse issues, particularly when the substance is pain medication. That’s because I know a good many CPP’s who’s family members have been duped into believing that they are addicts. These people may have never done anything wrong in regards to their medications and because they take them every day, they go through withdrawal symptoms if they wait too long to take them, or because of the type of medication (likely a combination of these), their friends or family have deemed them to be addicted. It happens all too often and with an even more frightening frequency since the PROPaganda storm hit.

    • Chronically Pained, excellent point. Many within my family don’t understand the difference between physical dependence and addiction until I explain it to them. Hell, the media and bureaucrats can’t even get it right. Physical dependence can happen without the presence of addiction while addiction can happen without the presence of physical dependence.

      Addiction involves intense cravings for the feeling a substance gives them when they take it for no legitimate medical reason, as a way to escape reality and/or as a way to self-medicate emotional pain, along with the continuation of ingesting a substance for no legitimate medical purpose even when that substance interferes with their ability to function in life and is affecting their life in a negative way.

      Many substances including those sold over-the-counter can cause physical dependence including caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, ceterizine (aka the OTC allergy med known as Zyrtec), Tylenol PM, along with many prescription medications including those that treat high blood pressure, depression and other mental health illnesses/disorders, neurological disorders including seizures and even medically supplemented oxygen.

      Banning, restricting and cutting the supply of any substance, particularly medication, does nothing to reduce abuse and addiction rates because the substances of abuse are merely the main symptom of a complex mental health disorder. Addicts will substitute another substance, always available on the black market. Restricting medication harms those with legitimate need for the restricted medicine.

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